


I Call it Magic

by SkieNight



Series: Magic & Mayhem [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Magic, Childhood Friends, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-29 21:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21416794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkieNight/pseuds/SkieNight
Summary: For a moment Suga wonders what would happen if he showed this boy some the magic he’s been practicing in secret, but then he remembers the broom flying and Mrs. Knightley warning him about showing off his abilities. He can’t show them to muggles.orThe four times Suga hides his magic from Daichi and the one time he doesn't have to.
Relationships: Sawamura Daichi & Sugawara Koushi
Series: Magic & Mayhem [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1543933
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	I Call it Magic

**Author's Note:**

> I've wanted to write a Hogwarts AU for a while now and my friend enabled me. This might end up as part of a series, I have some ideas for some other short stories but we shall see if college will ever let me get to them. Anyway, thanks for picking up this fic, I hope you enjoy it!

Suga slips out of the house when his mother and his nanny aren’t looking. His mother is never looking, so sneaking out from under her gaze is easy. It’s harder with Mrs. Knightley, but when a broom begins flying around the living room like a misshapen bludger and one of the portraits on the wall beings cursing loudly in French, she takes her eye off Suga to deal with the mess.

She had been giving him a history lesson not five minutes prior, but Suga hadn’t been listening. He’d been muttering the words he’d heard Mrs. Knightley and his father’s maid say to get the brooms and mops to start cleaning. He hadn’t expected anything to come of it, but suddenly the broom was acting all wild and the portrait was yelling and Mrs. Knightley’s lesson came to an abrupt end. Suga waits until she turns around fully before he dashes out of the room, through the kitchen, and out the side door. He takes a moment to breathe in the fresh air before wandering down the driveway in hopes of exploring his new neighborhood.

His mother’s new house is smaller than the one both of his parents lived in back in London, but he likes this one better. He thinks his mother does too. It’s been a long time since he’s seen her smile this much. The neighborhood they’re in is quieter, and unlike in London there’s space all around the house to play in and woods at the end of the street to explore. If his mother and Mrs. Knightley would ever let him, that is. They each gave him a stern talking to when he arrived a few days ago. He’s not even supposed to be going out of the house unattended, but if he doesn’t go far, Suga doesn’t see why he can’t take a look around.

At the end of the driveway, he stops and takes in the neighborhood. There’s no one else on the street. It’s a bit weird how quiet it is. Even though it is near dusk, the only noise that can be heard, aside from the soft rustling of leaves, are a few engines some streets over. There’s something calming about the quiet though, so Suga doesn’t complain.

To his left, at the very end of the street is the dark forest, large and looming. Something about it makes him turn and start walking in the opposite direction. The forest is for another day, he decides, when it isn’t almost night and the trees aren’t nearly as haunting.

There’s something else about the forest. He can’t name it, but it’s that feeling that comes when he is in his mother’s study when he isn’t supposed to be. The only word that comes to mind is magical. Maybe. Neither Mrs. Knightley nor his mother mentioned anything about magic, but he thinks he can feel it when the wind shifts and stirs the leaves. It’s faint, like the smell of cooking when he’s upstairs reading and Mrs. Knightley is downstairs in the kitchen. And even though he walks the other way, he finds himself craning his neck to get another look, because he can’t bring himself to turn his back on magic completely.

He hears something as he walks, but he doesn’t look up fast enough and finds himself on the ground a moment later. Suga rubs his back and rolls his wrists, checking himself for injuries and his clothing for any tears. His mother would be disappointed if she found out about his little adventure, and Mrs. Knightley wouldn’t let him out of her sight again if he got hurt.

“Are you okay?” a voice asks.

Suga looks up and finds himself staring at an outstretched hand. The boy the hand is attached to looks to be around his age, with warm, kind eyes and a crooked smile that shows off a funny gap where a tooth probably used to be.

“Oh, yeah. Thank you,” Suga says.

After only a moment’s thought, he grabs the boy’s hand and uses it to pull himself up. Once he’s back on his feet, he brushes himself off once more and checks again for any lasting signs of his fall. He glances up and finds that the other boy is studying him with the sort of wonder Suga has grown used to. It’s his Veela blood. His mother’s mentioned it before. He doesn’t quite understand it but knows that it’s the cause of his silver hair and the reason he receives a lot of strange looks.

Unamused by the boy’s blatant stares, he turns back around, ready to end his adventure early and get home before dinner. Maybe his mother and Mrs. Knightley had a point. “Thanks again,” he says, already on his way.

“Wait!” The other boy stumbles some but catches up to him in a few steps. “I don’t recognize you. Are you new?”

Suga nods. “My mum just moved into that house,” he says, gesturing to the tan house he’d snuck out of

The other boy’s eyes light up. “Really? I live there.” The boy points to the light blue house across the street from Suga’s. “When did you move? I didn’t see any trucks or anything.”

“My mum moved in a few months ago. I’m just visiting,” Suga replies.

The other boy looks at him curiously.

“My dad lives in London and I go to school there,” Suga clarifies, “I’m just here to stay with my mum for a few weeks while she’s not working.”

It takes a second, but the other boy nods in understanding, and Suga is suddenly thankful he doesn’t have to explain anymore. It’s still weird to try and describe that his parents still love him, and love each other they just don’t want to live together anymore. They’re each happier on their own.

They stop on the pavement in front of Suga’s house and they turn to fully face each other. The boy is staring again, this time more clearly at Suga’s white hair. Suga is used to getting weird looks from his peers, but this boy doesn’t look at him like he’s weird, he looks at him like he’s trying to take all of Suga in and process it. For a moment Suga wonders what would happen if he showed this boy some the magic he’s been practicing in secret, but then he remembers the broom flying and Mrs. Knightley warning him about showing off his powers. He can’t show them to muggles, and even if he could, maybe he should wait a bit.

Is this boy even a muggle? Suga’s never been able to tell wizards and muggles apart. They look exactly the same, only wizards can use magic and muggles can’t. It’s an invisible difference that’s more than a little frustrating to Suga, especially when he tries to make friends. He’ll have to ask Mrs. Knightley if there are any wizards in the area so he knows what topics are okay to talk about and what topics are not.

“Thank you for walking me home,” Suga says when he realizes they’ve been staring at each other for too long. “And I’m sorry for running into you.”

The other boy shrugs. “Sorry for running into you too.” Suga is about to turn and sneak back up his driveway, but the boy continues, “I have some friends who live a few blocks over. We like to play a lot of games and there are only five of us, so with you we’d have even teams. I know you’re not here for long, but if you wanna play with us you can.”

Suga blinks at him then shrugs. “I don’t…” Mrs. Knightley wouldn’t be happy with this, but then he thinks of spending the whole summer alone versus spending the whole summer with this boy smiling back at him, and suddenly finds himself nodding enthusiastically. “Yeah, that sounds great!”

“Cool,” the boy says, “See you tomorrow….” He pauses and looks at Suga expectantly.

“Koushi Sugawara, but everyone just calls me Suga!”

“I’m Daichi Sawamura,” the boy says with a grin that shows off the gap in his teeth. “But everyone just calls me Daichi. I’ll see you tomorrow, Suga!”

“Yeah… tomorrow,” Suga replies, but Daichi is already racing across the street to his own house. Suga hovers at the edge of his driveway until Daichi is out of sight, then he turns and races into his own home before Mrs. Knightley can spot him through the window.

* * *

The boys Daichi plays with are nice. Most of the time. Samuel, Michael and Yui, the only girl of the group, are all Suga’s age. Jake is a year older but plays with them anyway. As much fun as they all are, Daichi is still his favorite. He’s the only one who doesn’t continuously stop and stare at Suga for too long, and when he does it’s because Suga has grass in his hair or crumbs on his cheek. And while the others are friendly, Daichi is the only one who actively includes Suga in their conversations. He treats Suga like another friend, not just an outsider who’s only welcome because he evens out the numbers of their group.

He doesn’t really blame them for that though, because he is an outsider. The more time passes the clearer that becomes. Sometimes when he chimes into their conversations he can feel their eyes on him for a few extra seconds, and it’s not because he’s part Veela. It’s because he’s rounded the vowel a little too much or phrased something too “poshly” as Jake once told him. He stands straighter than them and is careful not to get his clothes too dirty, while the others don’t seem to care about a few extra grass stains or rips.

So Suga starts watching what he says and takes note of what he does. Only slightly. It’s not something that he’s unused to. Even back in London he always has to be careful of what comes out of his mouth, lest Anastasia say he sounds too mischievous or Paul teases him for slouching or mumbling or being too uptight.

But with Daichi he doesn’t have to think about how he stands or speaks or if he’s laughing too loudly or grinning to mischievously. Daichi takes everything in stride, sometimes to the point of where he out-paces Suga. With Daichi, they can do anything and talk about anything.

Almost anything.

“You’re late,” Daichi says when Suga meets him at the end of the driveway. “I almost didn’t think you were coming.”

Suga almost didn’t come. He’s tired from last night. Last week his mother hard returned from another trip to France, but instead of vanishing immediately into her room she pulled him into her study and began teaching him a few spells. These magic lessons had quickly become a habit. After the staff goes home and Mrs. Knightley turns in, he sneaks down the hall and knocks on his mother’s door twice. Sometimes his mother asks for a password - it’s always an inside joke or the spell he learned the night before - other times she leaves the door unlocked. Together they go over simple incantations and silly charms that turn a pen’s ink from red to blue or folds a napkin instantaneously.

He isn’t supposed to be learning these things. He knows that, and he’s sure his mother knows that too, what with her cunning smile and light “remember, Koushi, don’t tell your father about this, ‘kay?” But they do it anyway. It’s something that’s just between them, and it’s a time when his mother actually looks at him, so Suga cherishes every lesson with his whole heart and practices the spells when he knows Mrs. Knightley isn’t looking.

But last night’s lesson ran late, much later than either he or his mother realized, which was unfortunate for both of them, considering how early she had to get up to be in France. Her saving grace was that their fireplace had finally been added to the floo network. Suga didn’t have a saving grace; he still had to be up early to see her off. But still, even with tiredness seeping into each of his bones, he doesn’t regret it.

“Sorry,” Suga says, attempting to hide a yawn behind the back of his hand.

“Up late last night?” Daichi asks kindly as they start down the street.

“Yeah,” Suga replies. Daichi doesn’t ask but Suga can see the question in the other boy’s eyes so with a sigh he continues, “My mum is gonna be gone for the next month so we were up just… talking.”

“Gone?”

“Traveling,” Suga corrects.

“Wasn’t she gone a few weeks ago?” Daichi asks and Suga nods. “She seems to travel a lot.”

“It’s for work,” Suga says, hoping the bitterness that has lodged in his chest doesn’t show itself in his voice.

“Oh,” something crosses Daichi’s face, but it isn’t pity. It’s curiosity. “Where does she work?”

Suga frowns slightly and his stomach does that terrible thing where it twists around itself and hardens. He and Daichi can talk about almost anything without Suga needing to hide or change any part of himself, except for magic, which, unfortunately for Suga, manages to creep into every part of his life.

“It’s government stuff,” he says offhandedly. It isn’t a lie; he just doesn’t specify _which_ government. “It’s all really boring and keeps her really busy most of the time.”

“Is that why you don’t live here for the full year?”

Suga kicks at a rock that had found itself caught in a crack in the sidewalk and mumbles, “Something like that.” And the fact that the best wizarding primary school was located in London, but that was unimportant, right?

Suga shakes the thoughts and the sleepiness from himself and turns to Daichi excitedly. “What do you think we’re gonna play today?” He asks.

Daichi, of course, accepts the change in topic easily. His eyes light up, and they spend the rest of the walk to the football court tossing game ideas back and forth, both ones they’ve played before and ones they make up on the spot.

For the rest of the day Suga doesn’t have to think about magic, or his wizard friends in London, or that fact that he won’t see his mother again until the end of the summer, and when he comes home late, covered in bruises, and with a smile on his face, Mrs. Knightley doesn’t even bother to scold him.

* * *

Suga is very talented at many things. At least, that’s what his mother always tells him when she catches him practicing simple spells around the house. She never interrupts, only watches quietly from the side and waits for him to finish. Once he’s done, she’ll give him a few pointers, kiss him atop his head, and go about the rest of her day. They don’t have time for private lessons, not this summer, so Suga bathes in every word she says and hopes that the next time she catches him practicing she sees that he’s improved. And when she does, he beams.

It’s the small moments like these that remind Suga that she can still see him, even if she spends most of her time out of the house or buried in her study. It’s moments like these that give Suga just a bit of extra confidence.

Football is not something that gives him confidence because it’s not something he’s good at. He had thought that after eight-ish months back in London, occasionally kicking a ball back and forth while chatting with his friends, he’d have gotten better. And once he officially turned eleven, he was bound to be a good as the other boys, right?

Wrong.

Suga wasn’t _bad_ at football. He could pass, run, and keep up with the other kids for the most part. Occasionally, he could trick someone into lunging one why while he passes to Daichi or Samuel or Jack or whoever is open and on his team. But he can’t dribble like Michael can or make head-goals like Jack. He isn’t even as fast as Yui, and while the other boys seem to keep growing, Suga doesn’t. He’s shorter and ganglier than the rest of them.

“Isn’t Veela blood supposed to make me look nice?” He had asked his mother earlier that morning after staring in the mirror for a bit too long.

She sighed, but not in a disappointed way. She sounded fond and maybe a little sad, though Suga couldn’t understand why. After a moment, she’d smiled and nodded. “Yes, that’s one of the things it does,” she had replied, running her fingers through his hair that was almost as silver as her own.

“But then why don’t I look nice?”

She had frowned at that, only slightly, and it was gone by the time he blinked. She cupped his cheek, leaned down and bopped him on the tip of his nose like he was a little kid again. “You do look nice, darling,” she had said with all the warmth of a fireplace in winter. “But that isn’t something you need to worry about.”

She’d looked up and cast a quick glance to either side, Suga followed her gaze but saw nothing himself, so he focused back on her. Any of her previous sadness was gone, replaced with mischief that lit up her eyes and made Suga smile before he could help himself.

“Mrs. Knightley isn’t in right now,” she had said, quietly, as though this were an important secret for just the two of them. “So why don’t you run outside and go play with those boys from down the street? I’ll tell Mrs. Knightley that you’re in your room reading and don’t want to be bothered. Be back before supper and she’ll never be any wiser. Okay?”

Suga had laughed, nodded enthusiastically, and raced out of the house to go find Daichi. It wasn’t until the two of them were halfway down the block that Suga realized he had never told his mother about the boys that he played with.

Now, as he looks across the make-shift football field - they’re using one of the abandon lots a street over because it’s wide and far away from any breakable windows - Suga is tired. He’s tired of not be good enough. He’s tired of being second rate. Sure, he’s gotten a little bit better over the last eight months, but so have the other boys.

_They don’t have magic_, a bitter voice in the back of his head says. The voice isn’t wrong, but he still wants to be good at this, at football. It isn’t even about being better than the others. He just wants to know the feeling of kicking the ball and sending it flying past the goalie and into the net.

_They don’t have magic,_ the voice says again, though he’d really it rather shut up so he can focus. But before he can ignore it, the voice continues, _but you do. You have magic, which you can use._

It’s always tempting. According to his mother and his father and Mrs. Knightley, especially Mrs. Knightley, he isn’t supposed to use his abilities until after he’s enrolled in Wizarding School. Even then he isn’t supposed to use his abilities outside of whatever Wizarding School he ends up attending. He _especially_ isn’t supposed to use his abilities around muggles. But it’s late in the afternoon, and after the initial round of stares and interest, Suga doesn’t get a whole lot of attention from the others. Daichi is the only one he has to be aware of, but it wouldn’t be a big spell, he can’t do big spells, so it shouldn’t be noticeable to an unsuspecting muggle.

He gets the chance to try something when Daichi passes the ball to him as Jake rushes towards him. Suga takes a breath, mumbles the spell quietly, and sends the ball flying towards Yui. Michael sees through his pass and chases after the ball, Suga wills it around his feet but Michael catches up to it and passes it back to Jack with ease.

It didn’t work. He should probably stop trying. It’s clear that running, passing, and spell casting are too many things to think about at once, but now that he’s tried it, he has to try it again. Once more can’t hurt. Besides, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work.

The third time’s the charm, literally. The spell sticks the third he receives the ball from Yui after she demonstrates some amazing work that leaves Jack flat on his face. There’s a reason she’s the only girl the guys tolerate. She’s tough and isn’t afraid to hold her ground.

“She’s different from the other girls,” Jake said once when Suga asked about why Yui was the only one invited to play with them. “She’s cool.”

Suga happens to think Yui’s friends Chloe and Aisha are also cool. Chloe is outspoken and passionate about art, and Aisha is as witty as she is quiet. Suga actually likes them both quite a bit, but the only person who knows that is Daichi because he won’t make fun of him for that. Anyway, Yui passes him the ball flawlessly, and there’s something about the pass that sends a shiver up Suga’s spine. He knows his spell will work.

He starts the spell before his foot contacts the ball and finished the incantation as he follows through with his kick. The ball flies towards Daichi, just barely slipping under Michael’s feet as he tries to intercept it. It settles squarely by Daichi’s feet, slowing just enough to allow Daichi to change it’s momentum easily and dribble it down the field to where Samuel is guarding the goal.

Jake is back up on his feet and running. It’s clear who’s going to win if Jake and Daichi go head to head. Daichi is a good player, better than Suga at least, but Jake has dreams of joining the Men’s National team by the time he’s sixteen, and it’s not unrealistic.

But Suga wants this point. He wants it more than he can even describe. Even if he isn’t technically the one to score it, he wants to know he’s good at football in his own way. So he mumbles another jumble of words under his breath and flicks his wrist just so as Jake and Daichi face head to head. The ball slips between Jake’s legs and shoots towards the goal. Samuel wasn’t expecting that because he isn’t quite fast enough, and the ball rolls right under his hand and into the corner of the net.

Everyone stops and stares, first at the goal, and then at Daichi.

Yui is the first to cheer, and then Michael, who doesn’t even seem mad at missing the pass. Even Jake is laughing and patting Daichi on the back.

“Good job!” Jake says. “Don’t know how you did it, but that was a great kick!”

Daichi laughs along with them, looking awkward as he stands among his friends. He never really looks like he’s part of them. It’s like there’s something different that makes him stand out, or maybe that’s just because Suga always seems to notice Daichi more than anyone else.

“How’d ya do that?” Samuel asks, picking up the ball and checking it, like he’ll find some physical signs of tampering. But when he doesn’t he shrugs and drops it back into the dirt. Suga releases a breath.

“Must’ve been some kind of magic!” Yui teases, patting Daichi on the back so hard Suga can hear it from where he stands halfway down the court

“I don’t know about that,” Daichi says with a wince and rubs his shoulder where Yui had hit him, “I think it was just luck.”

After a moment Daichi laughs and everyone else does too. There’s a second where his eyes travel over the other heads to meet Suga’s, but before anything can be passed between them, Samuel is calling for the game to start back up and everyone is dashing back into their positions.

Suga is exhausted for the rest of the afternoon and ends up spending most of his time by the goal simply because he doesn’t think he can keep running. But the awkward smile and flushed excitement on Daichi’s face were well worth it.

On the way home, Daichi casually brings up the pass, asking if Suga thinks it was luck or some ‘kind of magic’ as Yui so aptly put it. Suga laughs, bumping his shoulder against Daichi and says, “don’t you think luck is a kind of magic in and of itself?”

There’s a quiet moment where Daichi watches his face and Suga has the distinct feeling he’s looking for something, but Suga doesn’t know what. After that moment passes Daichi smiles and nods. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Suga grins all the way up his driveway and into the house, and when his mother asks how his day went, he tells her all about Daichi's amazing goal. He doesn’t tell her anything about the magic he may or may not have used to make that goal happen, and, like Daichi, she doesn’t ask, only smiles and nods along.

* * *

After two summers and some-odd months, Suga expected to be used to all the ridiculous ideas the boys come up with. They’ve broken onto the school play structure more times than he can count, climbed into a various neighbors’ backyards to get their football back, and one night Suga even sunk Daichi inside, so that they could sit on the kitchen floor and talk the night away without being bothered by the rain.

The point is, they’ve done a lot of things and gotten away with most of them, surprisingly. Suga isn’t ignorant enough to think that his mother and Mrs. Knightley don’t both know what he’s been up to, but he’s only received a few scoldings - one for each time he’s been caught - otherwise, they both pretend that Suga spends his days on the block and stays in his room after curfew.

Their little group has done a lot, which is why when Jake says, “I’m bored,” with an exasperated sigh as he flops back onto the grass, Suga finds himself nodding along, unbothered by the drama.

“Ready for another round of three-on-three?” Yui asks, dribbling the football. Between last summer and this summer, she’s gotten even better than Jake, which has left him a little bit bitter.

“No more running,” Samuel requests from his own place sprawled across the grass.

“We need to do something new,” Jake says. “Shake things up a bit.”

But so far outside of the city, and even the main town, there isn’t anything new to do. Suga, for one, is happy to just sit in the grass and talk about anything and everything, while he still has the chance to do so. He has just over a week before it’s back to London and then, two weeks after that he’s off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Just over a month ago he received his invitation in the form of a letter tied to the leg of a tawny-colored owl with sharp golden eyes. His mother and Mrs. Knightley had been ecstatic, and so had his father when they had spoken over the phone. And yet Suga finds he doesn’t know how he feel. He should be excited, and he is, but mostly he’s just relieved not to be letting his parents down, and also a little bit scared.

Going to Hogwarts was less of a dream and more of an expectation. Both of his parents had gone. His grandparents had gone. There really isn’t a member of his family who _hadn’t_ gone, with the exception of his one uncle who’s a squib. Of course, Suga wanted to go, not just to maintain tradition, but because he knew it was the place he needed to be if he wanted to learn the most. It was the place that would give him the education to follow his mother’s footsteps and get a position in the Ministry of Magic. But as he looks around at his friends, he can’t ignore the stirring in his stomach. For them, they were just going off to secondary school and then coming back here next summer. Suga doesn’t know if he has a next summer, and he isn’t exactly sure how to tell them that, or if he even should.

“We haven’t been to the schoolyard in a bit,” Samuel says and brings Suga back into the conversation.

“That isn’t new or exciting,” Jake replies.

“It’s a bit of a hike, but we could go into town,” Michael suggests, “get some ice cream and hang out?”

“Around adults?” Jake scoffs. “No thank you.”

The boys continue to pass around various ideas, naming locations they hadn’t frequented recently. Jake turns each and every idea down with a huff. Suga can’t tell if he truly isn’t interested or is just being a bit of an arse.

“You know where we haven’t been at all,” Yui cuts in. She’s stopped kicking around the football and looks over all of them. Something twinkles in her eye, and Suga finds himself sitting up straighter to hear her suggestion. “The forest.”

They all stop. Even the wind settles as if the air itself is holding its breath. Jake is the only one to break the stillness. He sits up so quickly he probably makes himself dizzy, his eyes bright. “That’s perfect.”

Yui preens as the rest of the group looks between one another. They’ve all heard stories of the woods: the strange noises, the weird sightings, the wild animals, and, in Suga’s case, the magic. If there was one rule their parents would not turn their backs to them breaking, it was this one: don’t go into the forest.

“Um, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Samuel speaks up after a moment, quiet and timid.

Jake rolls his eyes and stands. “If you don’t want to come you don’t have to. You can watch our ball like the scaredy-cat you are.”

Samuel pouts and looks to the side. Suga finds himself nodding along with the other boy. If he stays back, Suga will too. He doesn’t want to anger his mother, not before leaving for school. But what about the others? Can he just let a group of muggles wander into the forest unaware of the danger they were walking into?

He’s about to speak up himself when Samuel rolls his shoulders and lifts his chin. He looks at Jake with a set jaw and eyes glowing with determination. “Fine. I’ll go.”

Jake beams and looks around. “Great! Anyone else want to back out? Now is your last call.”

Suga finds himself look to Daichi, who’s seated right beside him. Suga searches Daichi’s face for an answer and Suga can tell Daichi is searching his as well. After a moment they both sigh and nod. Yeah, they’re not letting these guys wander off alone. At least one person with some common sense needs to watch over them, and if Daichi is going in there to be the responsible one, then Suga is going too, to watch Daichi’s back.

Jake looks over their group with the pride a ship’s captain might have for his crew. He beams at all them and says, “Let’s go!” With a laugh, he turns and starts the march towards the forest.

The forest isn’t scary during the day. It’s bright and green and the only noises that come from it are birds chirping and the chattering of squirrels. But Suga can feel the magic pulsing from within the shadows, and the hair on the back of his neck rises as they take their first steps into the trees.

The rest of the group continues to chat as they march through the shrubbery. The forest isn’t dense by any means. In fact, it is oddly clear. If Suga were to look over his shoulder he knows he would be able to see the street and even his house past the trunks. And yet, looking in from the outside, he had never been able to see much. He takes a breath to calm himself. They’re just going to traipse around for a few minutes and then Jake is going to get board again and then they’ll go home. A few minutes in the woods won’t kill him.

“You okay?” Daichi asks softly from beside Suga.

“‘M fine,” Suga replies as he casts another look around at the tress. It’s a little denser further in, and a little darker, but with the light filtering through lush green leaves it’s almost pretty, nothing like the dark woods he’s seen from his house. Daichi continues to watch him with an odd expression he adds, “This place just has weird vibes,” because that isn’t a lie.

Daichi considers the comment for a moment before nodding and agreeing softly.

Surprisingly, Jake isn’t the first one to get bored of the forest, Yui is. Suga can see it in the way her finger’s twitch like she doesn’t know what to do with them. She twists her hands together for another few moments before snatching the ball out of Samuel’s hand with a laugh. Samuel lets her with wide eyes and a small flinch. Suga isn’t the only one getting weird vibes from the forest apparently.

With another giggle, Yui drops the ball and kicks it forward. It tumbles through the underbrush before banging and ricocheting off a tree. She races after it with a laugh. Jake calls after her, and soon the two are passing back and forth to one another, bounding the balls off tree trunks, squealing and laughing all the way. Michael joins in and even steals the ball from Jake a few times to pass around the small circle they’ve formed.

“If we were just going to play football, why couldn’t we have done it in the field?” Samuel asks, but his question is lost among shouts and laughter.

Yui dribbles the ball between her feet and ankles and knees. Suga loses count, but after a minute or so it drops. Still, she grins, and Jake rolls his eyes. “If you think it’s so easy, you do it,” she challenges.

Jake scoffs as she passes him the ball. After a roll of his shoulders and a steadying breath, he begins. Jake controls the ball easily, and a cocky grin settles across his face. His kicks get a little bigger and the ball gets a little wilder. Amongst the showmanship, Suga almost misses the flash of silver that flies around the back of the tree Jake stands before. And then, all at once, the ball flies off to the side and vanishes into the brush.

Yui is the one with the smirk now. “Easy, uh?”

Jake scowls. “I didn’t do it.”

Yui gives him a disbelieving look and shakes her head, staring in the direction the ball rolled. “It’s not that big of a deal,” she mumbles, digging through the shrubs. She continues for a few moments, before pulling away and looking back at the group with a confused frown. “It’s… gone?”

“What? No, it’s not!” Jake snaps and pushes her out of the way to look himself, but after another minute, he steps back from the bushes empty-handed. “It… it probably just rolled farther than we thought. Let’s go.” He hesitates for a second and then marches forward.

With a collective groan, the rest of the group trails him, and once again Suga finds himself bringing up the rear. As he passes the trees they played around, something catches his eye. He stops, attention focused on the trunk, but all that stares back at him is brown bark and green leaves. As he turns and follows the group, the hair on the back of his neck raises, and he has the distinct feeling of being watched.

“I can’t find it over here!” Yui yells from up ahead.

“It’s not here either,” Michael replies.

The group slowly drifts apart as they look for the missing football, which couldn’t have gone that far and yet is nowhere to be found. Suga lingers by the trunk, watching as his friends drift further away.

When he’s sure none of them will look back to check up on him, he peers around the side of the tree and comes face to face with eyes so round and dark, he can see his reflection in them. He stumbles back and the creature flutters. It has the head and the body of a human, but it’s the size of his palm with glittering wings erupting from its back.

The pixie watches him for a moment, then giggles and flutters around the tree and out of the sight. Suga tries to follow it, but when he steps around the tree, he comes face to face with a very average-sized and confused Daichi. Suga gasps and stumbles back, but before he can fall, Daichi’s hands are on his arms, steadying him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Suga laughs nervously and shakes his head. “It’s fine.”

Daichi removes his hands once Suga finds his footing and together the two of them start towards where the rest of the group had wandered off. “I expected Michael to wander off, not you,” Daichi jokes, but there is something in his eyes that looks like concern.

“Sorry, I thought…” Suga takes a breath and keeps his eyes forward. A small smile settles on his lips when he looks to his friend. “I thought I saw something, I was hoping it was the ball, but no luck.”

Daichi nods and chuckles nervously. “Yeah, last time I checked no one had found it. Where does a ball go in a forest? It can’t just vanish!”

Oh, but it can. Suga forces himself to laugh along anyway.

“Maybe we should just call it quits,” Samuel says as Suga and Daichi rejoin the group.

“It’s my sister's ball. We’re finding it even if we have to be out here all night!” Jake snaps.

“Maybe don’t take your sister’s footballs then,” Yui says smugly, “if you don’t want to lose them.”

As Yui and Jake continue arguing back and forth some light giggling echoes behind Suga. He expects it to be Michael, but he’s standing off to the side, watching Yui and Jake’s bickering with a look that was less amused and more tired. The giggling continues, clearly behind him. Suga casts a look to Daichi to see if the other boy has heard anything, but Daichi only sighs and walks forward as Yui and Jake’s bickering continues to escalate.

With no one else watching him, Suga tentatively looks over his shoulder. At first, it doesn’t look like anything is there. And then he sees it, the pixie is back, and this time it’s brought along all of its friends. They sit in a line along the lowest branch of the tree, legs crossed daintily, and silver wings flapping innocently behind them. Suga’s stomach drops. If there’s one creature his mother told him to watch out, it was pixies. He has the sudden feeling that the ball is a lot closer than any of them realize.

When the pixies see him watching them, they stop their giggling. One jumps up on the branch, sticks out its tongue like a five-year-old and vanishes behind the trunk. The rest of the group stands to follow and Suga knows that this is his only shot if they want to get the ball back before the sun goes down.

“I’m looking this way,” he yells over his shoulder, before rushing off into the brush where the pixies had vanished. Someone calls after him, but he doesn’t slow. The sooner they get this ball the sooner they can leave. They’ve already attracted the attention of pixies; they don’t need to attract the attention of anything else.

Up ahead, the brush crashes under the weight of something considerably larger than a pixie, or even a pack of pixies. The ball. Suga runs faster. He isn’t a particularly good runner, but pixies can only move so fast while pushing something so much larger than them. When he spots the ball through the underbrush, he doesn’t waste time. He lunges.

Pixies yank his hair, pull at his ears, and tug at his clothes. He shakes them off, swatting at them like flies or bees. And, like bees, they resort to stinging, or scratching and biting as the case may be. Their small claws and sharp teeth hurt, but there are only about half a dozen of them. He tucks the ball under his arm and stands, shaking them off his arms and dusting them off his pants. When it’s clear that they aren’t getting the ball back, the pixies leave, but not before giving his finger an extra nip and his eye one last poke.

One last pat-down tells him that he’s clear of pixies so he marches back towards where his friends are. Even if he didn’t know what direction he came from they’re easy enough to find, what with how loud they are.

“I’m telling you we should just give up,” Yui says. He hears her before he sees her, but when he does see her, he can tell that Daichi never quite managed to calm the argument between her and Jake. She stands with her arms folded tightly across her chest, staring Jake straight in the eyes.

“We’re finding that ball,” Jake snaps.

Yui throws her hands up with exasperation, “We shouldn’t have to suffer because _you_ were the one who took your sister’s football”

“Are you talking about this?” Suga replies calmly, holding up his find.

The others stop mid-argument and turn around.

“Where’d you find it?” Jake asks, reaching for the ball and snatching it from Suga’s hands.

Suga shrugs sheepishly, but can’t help the mischievous smile that curves its way along his lips. “You know. Around.”

Jake seems to accept it as he hugs the ball to his chest and sneers at Yui who rolls her eyes in return but looks grateful all the same. And just like that, the attention slips off of Suga like water. He’s happy to blend into the background and pleased to not answer any more questions. After reacquainting himself with his sister’s football Jake suggests they head back to the street. It’s getting dark after all, or so he claims. No one bothers to argue with him.

As they head out of the woods and back towards their houses, Suga falls to the back of the group on purpose this time. Now that he knows what lies among the trees, he can’t help it. Every now and again he sees a flash of silver in the corner of his eyes, but none of the creatures dare to get any closer. He’s so busy focusing on the things just outside of his line of vision he almost misses someone falling into step beside him.

He turns, half-expecting Daichi’s warm smile, but finds Samuel, wide-eyed and shaking, watching him with a fearful expression. Suga tries to give him a comforting smile and hopes that if anything seems wrong that it comes off as tiredness. “What’s up?”

Samuel looks ahead at the other boys and Yui talking amongst themselves. They’re distracted, but they aren’t as loud as they had been when they first entered the forest, which is honestly for the best. Samuel continues to look ahead, even when he starts talking he doesn’t look at Suga. “When you found Jake’s football did you… see anything?”

Suga’s stomach drops. So Samuel had noticed the creatures. He remembers Mrs. Knightley’s warnings about muggles who know too much, about what The Ministry of Magic will do to them if necessary. When he had tried to ask his mother if it was true that the Ministry would wipe a muggle’s memory, she smiled, patted him on the head for being clever and then asked him what he wanted her to make him for dinner. That interaction had told Suga more than he needed to know.

He looks at Samuel now, shaking and wide-eyed. How are memories even erased? Suga doesn’t know, and he has no intention of finding out.

“Just the ball, why?” Suga replies lightly. It’s almost scary how easily the lie rolls off his tongue, how he isn’t even sorry when Samuel visibly deflates and mumbles something before shuffling away, head down, arms wrapped tightly around himself.

It what he had to do. It’s for Samuel’s own good.

Suga is grateful that the next person who falls in line with him is actually Daichi.

“What was that about?” Daichi asks.

Suga shakes his head. “Just Samuel being Samuel.”

Daichi’s gaze lingers on him for a few extra seconds before he nods and says, “Sounds about right.”

The walk out of the forest is longer than any of them thought it would be. It is nearly sunset by the time they leave the shade of the trees. When they do, it’s like something physically peels itself from Suga’s shoulders. Still, he takes a moment to brush himself off, as if he can simply rub the magic off of himself.

“Was it just me or was that place creepy?” Suga asks Daichi softly. He’s the only other one who shakes himself free once he’s out from amongst the trees.

Daichi nods. “Definitely. Next time, I’m voting no to the forest.”

Suga snorts but finds himself nodding along seriously. “Agreed.”

Their little group doesn’t stay out too much longer, what with it getting dark and all. He and Daichi see the others off, then bid each other night and part. Suga takes his time going up his driveway so that he can glance over his shoulder and watch Daichi go inside. When he turns around, he finds Daichi looking at him too. After exchanging one more smile, Suga turns around and slips inside.

He kicks his shoes off at the side door, and steps into the kitchen where his mother and Mrs. Knightley are walking around each other getting dinner ready. “Perfect timing,” Mrs. Knightley says without looking up from the pot she stands over. She waves her wand in long arcs and various vegetables add themselves piece by piece into the stew. “Go help your mother set the table.”

Suga nods furiously and slips out of the kitchen, stack of plates in hand. He had expected Mrs. Knightley to know what he and the others had been up to all day, but maybe the feeling that lingered on him was just that, a feeling, and not magic like he had feared.

His mother stands calmly by the table and smiles when he enters the room. “You were out late today,” she says as she waves her hand.

One by one, the dishes lift themselves out of Suga’s arms and float towards the table. “Oh, you know, we were just playing,” Suga replies, choosing the watch the table set itself instead of looking to his mother.

“Were you?”

“Yeah, and Jake lost his sister's football, so we had to go find it.”

“Well? Did you?”

“Eventually.”

He can feel her mother’s gaze on him but after a moment, she says, “go wash your hands. The stew should be like done soon.” And just like that, the tension in Suga’s shoulders loosens, and his gut slowly unties itself. By the time he sits down for dinner, he can look his mother in the eyes and regale her and Mrs. Knightley with stories from his day, stories that don’t involve pixies or running around in the forest lost.

Suga almost forgets about the whole incident, until he finds himself at the kitchen sink, drying the dishes his mother washes with long swishes of her wand. They’ve been quiet for a while now, but something in her expression has shifted over the last few minutes. Suga is about the ask what’s wrong, but she speaks first, “I’m going to ask you a question and I expect you to answer honestly, okay?”

Suga looks at his mother, but her focus remains on the dishes she cleans with efficient precision. “Y-yeah?”

“Did you and your friends go into the forest today?”

He doesn’t even try to ask how to knows, maybe she saw them, or maybe she felt the magic sticking to him like wet mud, or maybe a pixie told her. He doesn’t try to guess because it doesn’t matter. He stops drying the dishes and takes a sudden interest in his toes. “We did.”

His mother sighs, a long and exhausted sigh, the kind she used to have a lot when she and his father still lived together, and Suga’s stomach drops. She can’t leave him as well. He turns to her suddenly, holding the plate in his hands against his chest. “It wasn’t my idea, it was Jake’s. They were gonna go in there anyway, and I… I knew it was wrong but I couldn’t let them go in there alone. I just didn’t want them to get hurt. I’m sorry, I won’t do it again. I promise.”

“Did your friends see anything?”

Suga shakes his head, then, realizing she still isn’t looking at him, says, “No, they didn’t see anything.”

She watches him through the side of her eye but eventually nods. “Let’s not have any more close calls, okay? I don’t want any of you to get into trouble.” Her hard tone remains, but her expression softens into the look Suga is used to seeing from her. When she doesn’t sigh again, Suga’s stomach unties itself and he goes back to drying the dishes.

* * *

Platform nine-and-three-quarters is more crowded than Suga has ever seen. There are people everywhere. Wizards everywhere. Suga can’t remember the last time he had seen so many in one place. Owls fly overhead, delivering last-minute messages or maybe just enjoying some freedom before being stuck in a train for a few hours. Despite the chaos, it’s easy to tell the families apart from one another. They stick together, moving as single units amongst the other bodies. Pairs of parents - mothers, fathers, guardians - seeing their child off with smiles and hugs and kisses to go around.

His parents’ divorce isn’t something he thinks about often, not anymore. It’s normal moving between one and the other. It wasn’t like they had spent much time together as an entire family when they were married anyway. But looking around at the smiling women makes him notice his mother’s absence more than usual. She already bid him off, wishing him well as she sent him to Daigon Alley to meet his father a week ago. But he could use another hug, or one of her knowing and comforting smiles at the very least.

A warm hand on his shoulder pulls his attention back to the man beside him. His father, calm and steady as ever, gives him a rare smile that manages to settle some of the butterflies in Suga’s stomach. After a few seconds of searching for something, his father says, “you’ll be fine.”

Suga nods stiffly in return. Somewhere a whistle blows and more people yell to get on board. Most of his luggage has already been loaded, leaving him with just a carry-on and his backpack. A second whistle blows and Suga looks to the seemingly endless train laid out in front of him. “I should probably board,” he says, but makes no attempt to move.

His father nods and squeezes his shoulder. “Don’t forget to write,” he says as he guides Suga forward.

Suga allows himself to be pushes towards the train. “I won’t,” he says, cracking a small smile.

His father nods but gives him a knowing look anyway. “Once a week.”

“Every other week,” Suga amends. “If you want to hear from me once a week, you could call.”

“Back in my day, we didn’t have cellphones. It was owls or nothing.”

“Or scrying, or two-way mirror, or floo network, or-”

“Alright, alright you’ve made your point,” his father laughs and pushes him forward, but never quite lets him go. It’s like he can’t decide if he should remove his hand or hold on tighter. He squeezes Suga’s shoulder again, gently pulling him to a stop, and Suga looks back at him with a curious gaze.

“Be good,” he says softer this time, his voice almost lost in the din of the station. Suga nods but there must be something in his expression because his father sighs and shakes his head, but the fond smile never quite leaves his lips. “I’m serious. Don’t get into too much trouble.”

“I won’t. I won’t,” Suga laughs then meets his father’s gaze head-on. “I promise.”

His father’s gaze lingers for a few more seconds. “God you look more and more like her each day,” he mumbles, so quietly Suga guesses that he hadn’t intended to say that. His father’s hand ranks through his hair once and then his touch is gone. “Can’t have you missing your train. There won’t be another one, after all.”

Suga nods, turns, takes a few steps forward towards the train and then looks back. “I’ll see you at Holiday!” He calls, waving.

His father lifts one hand, and that’s all he needs to see. He springs forward, practically jumping onto the Hogwarts Express. The interior of the train is no less crowded than the exterior; only this time it’s all children. Students of all sizes, shapes, and years run between train cars, laughing and yelling to one another. The older students look comfortable on the express, waving to their friends and moving about with a familiarity Suga envies. The other first-years look as lost as he does, so that makes him feel a little better.

He heads back, further and further down the train, until the cars become a little emptier and slightly quieter. He finds a compartment with its door slightly open. When he peers in, he doesn’t see anyone so he pushes it open the rest of the way and begins to throw his bags onto the rack above the seating when the door is pulled open. Suga freezes, suddenly aware of the other bags he’s putting his own next to.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t think this compartment was-”

“Suga?”

He turns around, duffel bag forgotten. Standing in the doorway of the compartment is a confused and slightly disgruntled Daichi, who watches him with disbelief. Suga blinks, once, twice, and when it is clear that Daichi isn’t vanishing begins laughing.

Daichi takes a step into the compartment. “You…” He looks Suga over again like he’s seeing him for the first time “You’re a _wizard_?” Suga nods, his laughter subsides but doesn’t vanish completely. Daichi’s disbelief turns into a wide and ridiculous smile. “But you never said anything! And when I tried asking you about it you never replied.”

“You asked me about it?”

Before Daichi can reply, the compartment door flies open and another all too familiar figure stands in the hallway. Yui looks as wild as she always does. She looks from Daichi to Suga and then begins laughing. “See! I told you so!”

“You knew?” Suga asks.

Yui holds her hands behind her back and shrugs playfully, but her smirk never leaves completely. “I had… _some_ idea. Daichi obviously couldn’t have made that goal on his own.”

Daichi rolls his eyes but doesn’t disagree.

Suga looks between the two of them. “But… but you never said anything? Either of you?”

“You never said anything either,” Yui replies

Suga sorts. She has a point. “I thought you were muggles, so I was trying to hide all of that for you. I didn’t want you to get into trouble.”

Daichi shakes his head but his smile only grows. “I guess we have a lot to catch up on, then.”

“Guess that means I can share this compartment with you two?” Suga asks, eyes twinkling.

Daichi pauses and looks to Yui who nods furiously, and then shrugs, “Guess so.”


End file.
